Wellness Mama®
Simple Answers for Healthier Families
Tips and resources to help moms create healthy lifestyles for their families through natural pregnancy and birth, positive parenting and natural living.
In the midst of holiday gift-giving, I can’t help but think about the fact that often well-intentioned gifts eventually lead to more stress, for the giver and the receiver. So much so that over time my husband and I decided to give experiences instead of material gifts as often as we can. After a few …
In case you’re wondering if you’ve got the right blog, never fear… no, I don’t think there is such a thing as healthy candy! By “healthy” I just mean “better than the alternatives,” meaning made from real food ingredients and without artificial dyes, preservatives, and all the other junk found in typical candy. I still …
Imagine a world where kids happily keep themselves busy and learning while doing activities that they love and learning math at the same time. A place where kids compete in a friendly way by doing athletic activities, creative games, and reading books. Sounds too good to be true, right? I’ve always heard that necessity is the …
There’s something magical about the idea of a fairy garden. It can be just as much fun to plan as a butterfly garden and there are so many possibilities. Here’s how to make a fairy garden in almost any location, with a wide variety of materials. What Is a Fairy Garden? No, we’re not growing …
As Mother’s Day approaches, I’ve gotten several requests from husbands of a few readers for gift ideas for Mom when regular chocolate won’t cut it anymore. I’ve compiled a list of some of the things I’d want to get (hint-hint honey) and feel free to add your favorites in the comments! Some of these are …
I’m realizing that the old saying seems to be true… time does go faster as you get older. My kids are growing so fast, and my mom-brain has started to realize that time before my oldest ones leave home is growing much shorter. For this reason, I’ve really been trying to start some family traditions and spend …
What is it about a Christmas stocking? Old or young, waking up on Christmas to a stocking lumpy with little surprises has its own special joy. Even if it’s something as small as a pack of gum or as practical as a pair of new socks! The Tradition of Christmas Stockings Thanks to the famous …
Getting kids to eat healthier, especially when it comes to eating vegetables and fruit, can be an overwhelming task. Luckily there are ways to gets kids on board with vegetables and fruits without having to coerce or bully them into it. I consider my kids to be above average in the eating-enough-vegetables department and the …
In our family, we have a motto that “we were made to do hard things,” (learned from my friends the Wonderling Family) and it’s always fun to think of new challenges and adventures to do together. This motto has been our encouragement through personal and family challenges from long hikes to cliff jumping and pole …
Many families are turning to homeschooling either out of necessity or a desire to create a more custom-fit education that works for their kids. This can be exciting or terrifying, depending on your reasons for beginning and how much the other areas of your life line up with this kind of approach. One way you can …
When you think back to your childhood, which memories stick out? Is it a favorite toy or birthday gift? Probably not. More than likely, your favorite memories involve some type of quality family time, such as reading together, cooking with your mom, or building forts in yard. Art can create togetherness in the same way. …
Once I stumbled across some comments on an older blog post about letting kids help in the kitchen. Commenters insisted that they would never let their kids use knives, or would limit them to only butter knives or dull cutting utensils until at least age twelve. Different strokes for different folks and all that, but my kids …
If you have kids (or ever were one) you know that boredom can be a huge struggle. But it can also be a chance to get creative and find new things to do! When boredom hits in our house or when I have to occupy the kids while I work, I rely on some of …
Oh motherhood! When we enter the amazing journey of carrying, birthing and raising a child, we learn many terms that previously we’d be unable to define… like perineal tear, sitz bath, and for many of us, unfortunately, also diastasis recti. Also called DRA (diastasis recti abdominis), this condition is the culprit behind many a “mom …
I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “I don’t know how you do it all with six kids!” And the secret is…. I don’t. At least not all of it. And certainly not all the time. That’s been one of the many lessons that motherhood has taught me and it led …
Though my family has chosen to homeschool for various reasons, we’re not immune to the influx of illness as school begins. We aren’t outside as much as the weather gets colder, and our trips veer away from outdoor adventures toward library trips, homeschool co-ops, and other places where germs love to hang out. Looking around …
I’ve had a running list in my phone of tips I found that saved me time or money (or made my life much easier). My hope was to work them into posts so I could share them, but the list was getting longer and I was having trouble fitting a bunch of random helpful tips …
I remember when one of the kids broke her leg while playing outside. Thankfully, kids bounce back quickly and she was back on her feet in about four weeks. During that time we made lots of gelatin-rich foods and gave her some extra nutrients to help her recover quickly. This was our first experience with a broken …
I’ve always been a huge advocate of getting my kids to play, especially outside during the summer. I feel like they are more well behaved, more tired at the end of the day, and overall happier when they get in lots of playing. But playtime has many other benefits too, and they’re backed by science! …
If you breastfeed, you probably know that a blocked or clogged milk duct is a painful and frustrating challenge that many nursing mothers encounter. Clogged milk ducts seem to come out of nowhere and can present a real challenge! In order to prevent the clogged duct from turning into mastitis or another infection, it’s important …
A couple of years ago on Mother’s Day, I shared a call to peace in the mommy wars and to step into our power as moms and women. Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a shift. The “war” between working moms and stay-at-home moms seems to have calmed a bit… maybe we’ve realized …
Let’s be honest… as moms, we will do just about anything to get our kids to sleep. Sleep is what makes a parent’s world go ’round. We need good sleep, and we desperately need our kids to get good sleep, too. Recently, I’ve begun reading about how a weighted blanket may be able to help kids sleep …
Parents of toddlers always ask me for tips on three things: how to keep them busy, how to get them to eat healthy food, and how to potty train them. Toddlers have a mind of their own and aren’t afraid to let you know their feelings (very loudly, I might add). So, when it comes …
I remember how easy it was to “work out” in college. For one thing, I was walking miles each week just to get to class, and whenever I got stressed and needed a mental break from homework, I could just go to the gym on campus (for free) and get a workout in. I didn’t …
